So I've had a couple very different experiences with the Generations park at boys ranch ... Aka as the city's partnership with YMCA that combined the YMCA that had been on Central with Boys Ranch which was a city park with small water park/pool area. Which also acts as the city's rec center. There was concerns ahead of time about the city paying to build the facility for the YMCA to take it over; but the way I think it works out is that it still belongs to the city, but YMCA manages it so they are responsible for staffing, pay, etc. As a getting in to the different parts of the place ... if you are coming for the parks I recommend coming from Fossil Ridge. You can get to the pool & gym from here but you'll be taking a very winding path from the. The entrance takes you easily to the two parks on the grounds. If you are coming to swim or use the gym there is an easier entrance to the buildings parking lot from what I think is McClain road. Coming from Harwood that's the light for the road right next to the post office.
My first experience was coming up to take a tour. The staff up front was extremely helpful and friendly and the facilities look amazing. I was pretty much ready to sign up but life happened and we hadn't picked back up the paperwork prior to the birthday party we just went too. My second experience was a phone call; again staff was helpful.... I was calling to see how we'd go about booking a room for a party but not a swimming party ... kinda think more of like for a baby shower or 1st birthday. They were helpful on the phone, and the price per hour was amazing for what we needed, but the system to book something like that was we needed to email one particular person and you MIGHT hear back and you might not. Not something that you need when trying to book something of the nature. When compared to another local rec center that has that all available on their website to book without need of calling or emailing.
My most recent experience was a pool birthday for one of my kids friends. There was no real check in system, we walked in with two other families from school and the birthday kiddos sibling came up to walk us back to the room. The party host wasn't very attentive; we only saw him two or three times in the 2 little more than 2 hours my kiddo & I had been there. It took 10 minutes into the party for us to find out our kids needed wristbands, not counting the time the party parents had already been there; which all of the kids there had already been in the pool for that whole time. The wristbands were in boxes on top of a random shelf so wasn't obvious to us at all. The dad of the birthday kid had to make 4 trips back and forth to bring things in and was only told about carts they had for parents to use when leaving. The parents said they went to an area a few times to try to track the host down but never could find him. Lucky the party went off with little to no issue and the parents said the price is outstanding. The indoor pool area is great that you can see everything from most points so it's easy to keep track of kids. They have two big slides which the kids liked. Lots of life guards, and all the areas we had been in was well maintained. The one major change on upkeep is they need more mats in the party room. They had one mat at the door but the tile floor in the party room quickly became hazardous with as many wet kids walking in & out as we did. Even with the kids walking in with towels on them. Luckily some folks had brought extra towels which helped ... but with the MIA party host we would have been out of luck with a number of slipping and sliding kids if we didn't have the spare towels.
Hopefully they can get some of the kinks worked out from being new. read more